Love Connection

In the last couple of months, both the Immortals e-sports organization and the Manchester City football club teamed with Tinder to help their passionate fans find romance. The two become the latest of a handful of licensed properties that have entered the dating-service space over the past several years.

The deals vary in scope, duration, and other particulars:

• The Immortals organization announced its Tinder partnership, which involves its new Brazilian e-sports acquisition, MiBR, in late June. In a series of campaigns, MiBR and Tinder will offer digital and live activations involving the Tinder Plus and Tinder Gold services, with a focus on creating opportunities for fans of the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to meet each other.
• Manchester City’s Tinder venture, which debuted in April of this year, includes the men’s and women’s teams in that town, as well as Major League Soccer’s New York City F.C. in the U.S., which shares the same ownership. The initiative is expected to consist of a variety of fan meet-and-greet opportunities, such as exclusive events and special stadium access.
• In 2015, Oscar Mayer launched a dating app called Sizzl to help bacon lovers make a connection. The pun-filled service, in the form of an iOS app, was a six-month promotional effort that matched smoked meat lovers with each other through a series of bacon-centric questions.
• In 2014, American Mensa and Match.com paired up to help the former’s members meet other smart people from inside and outside the Mensa organization. The licensing relationship, still going strong in 2018, includes a separate service, Mensa Match, as well as a profile identification badge for the mainstream Match.com service to denote Mensa members’ interest in finding love with another person whose IQ is in the genius range.
• In 2013, Elle magazine and HowAboutWe.com formed Elle Dating, a co-branded platform, which was hosted on Elle.com to provide synergies with the publication’s editorial content. Elle Dating paired Elle readers with HowAboutWe.com members who had similar interests, and offered one-on-one matchmaking from Elle’s relationship expert E. Jean Carroll. New York magazine launched a similar service with the same partner in 2011.

Licensing and promotional agreements for dating services—which, in addition to the platforms mentioned above, include the likes of OkCupid, Bumble, Hinge, Grindr, and many more—are still relatively few and far between, with many licensors leery of the category and not all properties representing a good fit.

That said, for properties with adult aficionados who want to associate with like-minded fans, partnerships with reputable dating services can increase customer engagement, especially among a millennial audience. Conversely, these sorts of deals represent a way for the dating services to increase their subscriber base, as new members come on board due to the licensed venture. Thus, it is likely more deals will be forthcoming.